


A Beautiful Morning

by inquisitorsmabari



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Healing, Lyrium Withdrawal, One Shot, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-04-11
Packaged: 2019-04-21 13:53:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14286351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inquisitorsmabari/pseuds/inquisitorsmabari
Summary: The Inquisitor wakes up in Cullen's drafty loft and seeks to comfort him as he endures one of his nightmares.





	A Beautiful Morning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MandoJedi23](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MandoJedi23/gifts).



> This was the last of my giveaway prizes for mandojedi23.tumblr.com featuring their lovely Alexandra Trevelyan loving some Cullen

The winter had been long and bleak. Every morning she had woken to a bitter cold air that threatened to confine her to her bed forever, heralding the arrival of yet more snow to cover the castle grounds. But, eventually, the snows melted, the clouds parted, and the sun began to shine. It shone now, bursting through the large hole in the rafters and cutting through her sleep, bringing her away from the Fade and back into the real world.

Slowly, she stretched out her limbs, working the heavy weight of sleep out of her aching muscles as her eyes opened by just a fraction, letting in a blast of dawn light. She moaned, throwing her head below the covers as she fought off the intrusive light that assaulted her through the roof. Maker, she should get that fixed. 

That was when she looked over at Cullen, meaning to chide him over the poor choice of living quarters. Except she couldn't. His face was a scowl, his eyebrows knotted as he twisted and turned, fighting off demons that weren't there. The covers had slipped, thrown off of his body as he poured with a sweat that made her recoil her touch. She knew better than that, anyway, she knew that all she could do was watch him work his way through his nightmares while she prepared for him to wake. 

She rose from the bed with a sigh, dragging her feet over to the wash basin that had been filled in their sleep, grateful to the servants who worked overnight to keep them all comfortable. She fought against the beautiful prospect of sleep as she walked back over to the bed, forcing herself not to climb under the soft white down and slip back into the Fade. Instead, she parked herself on the floor on his side of the bed, her head falling back against the mattress as it lay inches from Cullens, his quiet whimpers sounding like screams as she sat in silence with the bowl in her lap.

She'd not realised what she had gotten herself into when she fell for her handsome blonde advisor, but then no one ever does when they find themselves falling down the rabbit hole of love. But now she found herself slipping into her new role as both lover and protector with some ease. But whether she was doing what was right, she had no idea. She wasn't the healer, her sister was. Well, she had been.

She would have known what to do, she wouldn't have sat uselessly on the floor while the man she loved writhed in a pain she couldn't see, stroking the clammy skin on his arm with the lightest touch of her fingers. She would have soothed him, calmed him, healed him, brought peace to the war in his mind. 

But she wasn't here, and Cullen was stuck with her instead. 

A hand shot out towards her, and instinct forced her to grab it, grasping the fingers and intertwining them with her own. It seemed to calm him for a bit, and she relaxed, leaning back against the bed behind her with her eyes closing ever so slightly. But her mind instantly filled with the bittersweet memories of her family, her siblings, her sister, with her delicate healing hands and her sweet smile. She tried to force her eyes open, pull out of the abyss of nightmares that had overwhelmed her, but she couldn’t, she had drifted into the Fade against her will and now she was struggling, fighting, clawing her way into the waking world, with no success.

It was only when she felt a strange pressure on her head that she woke up.

Looking behind her frantically, she was met with a face that startled her at first but, soon, it calmed her, the golden eyes peering through half opened lids warming her soul like a warm mug of cocoa on a cold winter’s evening. His fingers played with her hair, stroking the soft tendrils of auburn hair at the base of her scalp.

“I’m sorry,” She said, her voice quiet as she relaxed into his touch. “I was meant to be looking after you.”

“You are,” He whispered, his voice raspy and heavy with the remnants of sleep. 

“I’m not!” She turned around, looking at the man who led half asleep on the bed with his face half obscured by the feather down pillow and his eyes opening and closing slowly as he looked at her. It was hard to imagine that, not five minutes ago, the smile on his face had been a frown, the look of peace had been one of anguish, and the look of love had been one of pain. “I do try,” She sighed, drawing herself closer to him so that she could lean forward, her forehead touching his as he continued to stroke her hair with a delicate touch. “But I’m not good at it.”

“I think you are,” He said softly, his words all but a whisper as they filled the void between them, words which were just for them, for her, no one else. A secret between them whispered on a pleasantly warm spring morning. “And I don’t think you have to try.”

His words faded away into silence, a silence that soon became filled with the heavy breathing of a pair of sleepy souls who, try as they might, couldn’t escape the pull of the Fade. And soon, they drifted off again, but together this time. And she, at least, didn’t have any nightmares.


End file.
